Maurizio Pollini

“Pollini, now 68, is the Italian arch-aristocrat of the piano . . . he uses his palette of stainless-steel shades to convey unshakeable faith in the music’s muscles, sinews and skeleton . . . I could have listened to him all night.”

The Independent (London), 8 March 2010

BIOGRAPHICAL TIMELINE

Maurizio Pollini was born in Milan on 5 January 1942. His father was the famous architect Gino Pollini, one of the leading representatives of Italian rationalism and also an expert violinist. His mother, Renata Melotti, studied piano and singing and was the sister of the well-known sculptor Fausto Melotti, who had a lasting influence on the young Pollini. In 1948 Maurizio Pollini received his first piano lessons from Carlo Lonati. From 1955 until 1959 he continued his studies with Carlo Vidusso and in 1958 he began to study composition with Bruno Bettinelli. In 1960 he was awarded first prize at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw and appeared at La Scala playing Chopin’s First Piano Concerto under Celibidache. Since then Pollini has become one of the most admired and respected pianists of our time and has appeared all over the world with leading orchestras and conductors. He is particularly renowned for his innovative concert programmes which champion works by contemporary composers and contrasts these with those of the Classical and Romantic eras. An exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist for four decades, his recordings have won innumerable awards, including Gramophone and Echo Awards, Diapason d’or, Record Academy Prize, Tokyo, and Stella d’oro as well as two Grammys®.

1963

Debuts in London and Berlin

1968

Debut in the USA. Increasingly performs music of the 20th century

1970

First appearance with the Berliner Philharmoniker

1971

First recordings for Deutsche Grammophon: Stravinsky’s Three Movements from “Petrushka” and Prokofiev’s Seventh Sonata

1973

Salzburg Festival debut; release of Chopin Etudes

1974

First tour of Japan. Appearances with Herbert von Karajan

1975

Recitals featuring the three last sonatas of Schubert; release of Schoenberg’s Complete Piano Works

1976

Debut as conductor with the Orchestra of La Scala; release of Chopin Preludes

Plays the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos in New York with the Wiener Philharmoniker under Abbado and receives the orchestra’s Honorary Ring. Release of Chopin Piano Sonatas nos. 2 and 3

1991

Recording of Schumann and Schoenberg Concertos with Abbado and the Berliner Philharmoniker. Release of Liszt recital disc

1993/
1994

Plays his first complete Beethoven Sonata cycles in Berlin and Munich, later also in New York, at La Scala and in Paris, London and Vienna

1995

Takes part in the Boulez Festival in Tokyo. At the Salzburg Festival directs the Progetto Pollini for the first time, a series of concerts in which old and new works are juxtaposed. New recording of the Beethoven Piano Concertos

1996

Receives the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize

1999

Second Progetto Pollini in Salzburg. Release of Chopin Ballades

1999/
2001

Organizes the concert series Perspectives analogous to Progetto, at New York’s Carnegie Hall

2001

Takes over programme planning of the concert series Kontrapunkte at the Salzburg Easter Festival; release of Beethoven’s DiabelliVariations

Progetto Pollini at the Salzburg Festival. On CD: works by Schumann and Chopin’s Nocturnes; on DVD: Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms concertos with the Wiener Philharmoniker under Böhm and Abbado

2006

Chamber music appearances in Vienna with the Alban Berg Quartet, Hagen Quartett and Ensemble Wien-Berlin. Release of his recording of Mozart’s Concertos K. 453 & 467 as soloist and conductor of the Wiener Philharmoniker

2007

Soloist and conductor in Mozart concertos with the Galician Symphony Orchestra in Spain and the Wiener Philharmoniker in Vienna’s Musikverein; Beethoven concertos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall under Masur and Jurowski, and with the Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig under Chailly. Various recitals in Europe and the US. Release: Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas op. 2 nos. 1-3

2008

Brahms’s Concertos nos. 1 & 2 with the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia in Rome; Beethoven’s Concerto no. 4 with Abbado in the Berlin Philharmonie and Vienna’s Musikverein; Schumann’s Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and James Levine in Boston and New York. Solo recitals throughout Europe, in Moscow, St. Petersburg and the US; chamber-music recital with the Hagen Quartett in Rome; a Schoenberg-Berg-Nono chamber concert in Brussels. Festival appearances at the Klavier Festival Ruhr, the Salzburg and Lucerne festivals. Releases: Live recording of Mozart’s Concertos K. 414 & 491 with Pollini as soloist and conductor of the Wiener Philharmoniker and a Chopin recital

2009

Concerto appearances include the Berlin Staatskapelle (Barenboim), Gewandhaus Leipzig (Chailly) and the Filarmonica della Scala (Boulez); concerts with Klangforum Wien (Eötvös) in Paris, Cologne and Milan and with the Ensemble Intercontemporain (Boulez) in Paris and Milan; recitals in Vienna, Cologne, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Italy, China and Japan and at festivals including Salzburg, Lucerne, Tempo Reale (in Paris) and Bonn’s Beethovenfest. Released this year: Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier I

2010

This years plans include performances of Brahms’s Concerto no. 1 with the Munich Philharmonic (Thielemann), London Symphony Orchestra (Eötvös) and NDR (Dohnányi); Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the Concertgebouw (Jansons) and Santa Cecilia (Pappano). Numerous recitals throughout Europe and the US; festival appearances in Salzburg and Lucerne